The Career Pioneer

Courtesy of StockVault

About five years ago, I moved from my small hometown in Georgia to Los Angeles about a year after high school graduation with the hopes of pursuing an acting career. It was short-lived.

After attending acting classes for one academic year, I decided to try college once again and then enrolled into a two-year institution in Culver City, Calif.

It was a tough road. I was completely on my own, making ends meet by working at a popular L.A. shopping mall. I managed to hold down an A-B average even in the midst of working over 40 hours a week. I didn’t have a car or a cell phone for some time. I was living with a good friend in an apartment the size of a match box. Yeah.

Indeed, it was probably the most humble, yet most rewarding time of my life. I was making it. And I learned a lot about myself along the way. Most importantly, I experienced for the first time in my life the very essence of the saying, “If there’s a will, there’s a way.”

The good thing about the three years I spent in L.A. was that I earned an Associate’s degree in liberal arts, and eventual acceptance into my four-year college of choice. The bad news is that I gained about 40 pounds doing it.

Yep. That’s right. How did I gain so much weight? Let’s put it this way: I lived on a poor college student’s diet, which consisted mostly of selected items ordered from the McDonald’s Dollar Menu and high-sodium, microwaveable meals. Ugh.

Although, during the summer just before making the trek to Washington, DC I decided to lose the weight. For an entire year, I avoided all types of fast food. You couldn’t catch me at any drive-thru window. Nor could you nab me snacking on the sweet treats I often craved. I was on the road to redemption.

I began hitting the gym with a determination and drive that rivaled a professional athlete. (Okay. Maybe not that dedicated, but it sure felt like it.) Eventually, I lost every ounce of the 40 pounds I had gained, and got slim and trim.

You’re probably wondering what all this has to do with careers, and living your dreams, and becoming a success. Well, I’ll tell you.

Remember: “If there’s a will, there’s a way.”

After failing miserably at pursuing a career as an aspiring actress, and becoming so disillusioned by the idea anyway, I made the bold decision to go after my academic goals and earn a college degree. I didn’t know how I was going to pay for it. Didn’t know a lick about financial aid and whether I’d be eligible for it. Didn’t even possess good study techniques. I could barely write a decent essay. I struggled with anxiety and lost entire nights of sleep when I had to turn in assignments.

Did I want to give up?
Sure.
Did I?
Of course not.
Why?
Because I was resolute.

I envisioned the end result. I became unswerving. To describe it in one word: Determined.

Similarly, after gaining too many pounds eating fried, fast-food I once again made a steadfast decision to lose the weight and get healthy. And I did.

Here’s the point.

We all have some level of ability to turn on that switch that puts us in the frame of mind to do whatever it is we want to achieve in life. That’s not to say the road ahead will be absent of twists and turns, hard-knock challenges, and uphill battles. But it does mean that when we are strong-willed, brave, bold and courageous in the decisions we make in life, nothing will be able to stop us — not even life’s inherent obstacles.

At the end of the day, you’ve got to ask yourself whether you’re getting in the way of your own progress. Are you sabotaging your own success?

If you can answer ‘yes’ to at least one of the following questions, then you’re most likely in some way hindering your own progress.

• Do you focus too often on what you can’t do, rather than what you can?

• Do you obsess about how someone else seems so talented, instead of tapping into your own gifts?

• Are you driven and motivated, but lack focus and discipline?

• Do you often set yourself back by giving up too soon?

• Do opportunities come along, but you eventually talk yourself out of accepting the chance to move ahead because it seems too challenging?

• Do you constantly downplay your experience or education due to insecurity?

• Do you take a back-seat and let others accept leadership roles?

• Do you compromise and make unsettling decisions in order to appease or please others?

Today is the day to turn around your thinking and thereby, transform your actions. Start thinking more positively. And when negative thoughts start to creep in, shut them down immediately by training your mind to counter unproductive, unflattering beliefs about yourself.

Only do what is true to you. If something doesn’t seem right, take a moment and ask yourself ‘why?’ That gut feeling could save you some heartache in the long-run.

Don’t give up. Continue to fight against negativity. It can so easily engulf your life and paralyze your progress. Eventually, you’ll conquer those negative beliefs once and for all and you’ll learn how to overcome life’s roadblocks with positive, faithful thinking.